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Another great respite weekend spent in great company! This time, we started our countdown to Christmas!

Saturday

We began our morning by going through the good old Sears Christmas catalogue, to Charlotte’s great delight! Then, we gathered all our ideas and put them together in a letter for Santa Claus. Anne-Frédérique heard that Santa wanted to hear not only about what we wanted for Christmas but also who we are and what we like to do, so we also included it in our letter.

In the afternoon, we took a walk to the Ayer’s Cliff post office to send our letters. Throughout our journey, Domenic led the way and Émilie made us laugh a lot. On our way back, we got to enjoy the Christmas lights around the neighbourhood.

In the evening, we watched the movie The Grinch, but we were so tired that we didn’t get to watch it until the end. To be continued at home during the Holidays maybe?

Sunday

In the morning we continued our Christmas cards and we made some presents for our families. Yet, everyone’s favourite activity was decorating gingerbread cookies. Cédric and Yohan went particularly wild!

We also played Elf Bowling which consists of knocking down all the elves hidden on the bowling pins.

In the afternoon, we made a bond fire and we told each other Christmas stories while waiting for the bus. Dreydon particularly enjoyed that.

Happy Holidays!

Last weekend, Camp Massawippi had its first Halloween respite weekend!

Saturday

We were busy getting ready for the big night! First, we did a Halloween quiz around camp. This allowed Magdalena, who was with us for the first time, to get to know the place. Here are some questions (answers at the end of the blog post):

1. What is the top-selling chocolate bar in the world?

Kit Kat

Reese

Oh Henry!

Snickers

2. According to an ancient belief, it is good luck to see a ________ on Halloween.

Spider

Bat

Pumpkin

Black Cat

3. What is the name of the school of witchcraft and wizardry situated in England?

Cambridge

Beaubâton

Hogwarts

Oxford

Then, we did some pumpkin carving. Each camper had its own pumpkin and was free to decorate it the way he or she wanted. Émilie made an Olaf, Dominic an emoji, Kim a Jack-O-Lantern and Sonia decorated hers the good old way.

Finally, we got costumed and had an early dinner just in time to go trick or treating!

We had a spooky welcome at Charles-Étienne’s house, our waterki team leader.

We walked along Round Bay road then we turned right on Ripplecove drive and continued all the way to the Ripplecove Hotel!

Families we met were very accommodating. Thank you to the community for this beautiful night!

Back at camp, we went through our candies and drank a bit a blood, freshly prepared by Virgo.

Sunday

It was a rainy Sunday at Ayer’s Cliff so we opted for indoor activities.

We did natural prints with Fall leaves and Sylvie painted some scary faces.

It was an incredible weekend!

We truly hope you can join us for our next respite weekend on November 27th, 28th, 29th for the countdown to Christmas!

Last Wednesday, we had the pleasure to welcome Mrs. Lucie Charlebois, Minister responsible for Rehabilitation, Youth Protection and Public Health.

After a brief discussion in the office, the Minister went down to the beach to visit our adapted aquatic facilities, more specifically our adapted waterski program.

Madame Charlebois even went in the boat!

When we invited Madame Charlebois last Spring, we were hoping her visit would be an opportunity for campers to discuss with her. During her visit, the Minister exchanged with a dozen campers on different issues related to rehabilitation in Quebec.

At the end of the discussion, campers gave her a letter summarizing the topics covered during their discussion.

Our first session is now over. Here are some great pictures of what we did!

Picnic

On Saturday June 4th, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather to do a picnic in the Ayer’s Cliff Park. The water games were a great success!

Personal Projects Presentation

During each session, campers are asked to concentrate on one project they will develop for the whole session. Some built a new puppet stage while others made puppets. Campers could also learn how to draw or develop their hockey skills.

Massawippi Inn

An important camp tradition is the Massawippi Inn. This year we decided to change the rules a little and allow campers to invite a counsellor or a camper as their date.

See you soon with some pictures from Session 2!

Work Party

On May 23rd and 24th, thirty volunteers came to help our maintenance staff to prepare camp for the summer! With their support, we were able to carry out many projects. One team solidified the kitchen floor in the Dining Hall while another replaced all the posts in front of Forest cabins. Other groups helped us with the spring cleaning.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed! We hope to see you again next year!

Staff Training

The Senior Staff worked hard to prepare a week filled with fun! The latter started with a Association des Camps du Québec training on animation techniques. Then, Erin O’Neil, OT and former Wolves team leader, came to teach the basic PDSB principles. Sylvie, nurse, and Marie-Pier, health counsellor, talked about our campers’ different medical conditions and did a workshop on first aid procedures at camp. At the end of the week, Ingrid and Michele from MAB-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre came to give a workshop on visual impairment. Every year, this workshop is a great success!

School groups

Nine schools will be visiting us this spring. A wide range of campers will be coming: adapted schools, English immersion programs, etc. Despite a rainy start, Joseph-Charbonneau High School started off with a lot of enthusiasm. Then Philip E. Layton School joined us during the training which allowed our new staff to work with similar campers as the ones coming for the summer. Lots of fun ahead!

Session 1

During training, our specialists worked really hard to organize all the diffrent themes for the summer. The theme for session 1 will be: Time Travel!

Friendly reminder: Session 1 will start on Sunday June 21st 2015.

Last December 13th and 14th Camp Massawippi welcomed its first campers for our respite weekend getaways!

Busy Christmas Schedule

On Friday Night, Virgo, our chef, welcomed us with some hot chocolate and his famous chocolate chip cookies… to Anne-Fred’s delight!

After a good night of sleep in the Fox Cabin, we spent the morning preparing some Christmas gifts. Sonia was busy decorating snow flakes while Charlotte and Sonia were making body scrubs.

In the afternoon, Alexandra organized a “gift hunt”. Campers spent part of the afternoon looking everywhere on camp for some well-hidden gifts. We had an incredible time outside!

After a busy day, everyone seemed tired so we decided to stay in the multipurpose room, the Village, to play board games and listen to Cedric play the piano. Félix who still had lots of energy, went to do the night duty run around camp with Virginie. People of Ayer’s Cliff: did you hear the bell?

Sunday went by even more quickly than Saturday! We painted the canvas (see below), putted together our Christmas sock, made our luggage, decorated gingerbread cookies and… it was already time to go!

A New Tradition

A new page in the history of Camp Massawippi was written when the respite program Throughout the Seasons was launched. Therefore, it was important for us to symbolize the weekend getaways with a new tradition. Our staff had the brilliant idea to paint a different canvas for each respite weekend; each of those canvases representing the theme of the weekend. Starting in 2015, you’ll be able to enjoy our canvas mosaic in the Arts & Crafts Room.

This new experience was a great success, both for our campers and our staff.